How the past is reflected in the future rests with today.
As the Harvie Road/Big Bay Point Road overpass construction at Highway 400 nears completion, thoughts of Indigenous history around the site — and around other areas of Barrie, too — remain.
Frances McGill was a college student back in the mid-1980s and has first-hand memories of an archeological dig on a site south of Harvie Road next to the 400.
Her thoughts and love of that parcel of land, and the importance of Indigenous history, have never waned.
“I ended up there when I was working for Heritage Barrie as a photographer for a summer job,” she tells BarrieToday, while taking a break from the summer heat along with Jeff Monague, a Beausoleil First Nation elder.
“It was a wonderful opportunity to practise something I enjoyed doing, as well as learning about the people who were here before us. I recall the rolling hills and seeing the area mapped out in grids. It was a fascinating process to watch,” McGill adds.
While acknowledging three tiers of government have their place to preserve history, Monague is not convinced those three tiers make it work.
“In this area, although not specific to this site, there has been significant work for (by) the city as part of the environmental assessment for the extension of Bryne Drive,” he says.
SmartCentres, which owns property south of Harvie Road, has applied to the city for a temporary-use bylaw on behalf of its subsidiary, Barrie-Bryne Development Ltd., for the property located near Highway 400 and Harvie Road, not far from where the new bridge is being built that will connect Harvie and Big Bay Point Road.
While the historical significance of areas near Harvie Road — or other land around Barrie — may not yet be completely established, they deserve consideration, Monague says.
The property has been farmed as an interim use every year since 2014. Temporary use was previously permitted by the city under a 2014 bylaw and extended in 2017. It expired on Feb. 9, 2020, but the landowner hopes it can continue to be farmed in the meantime. The temporary-use bylaw would renew agricultural use until 2023.
“Like all Indigenous villages, or (potential) burial sites, this site is important because it is a part of the history of this land,” Monague says. “Sites like this deserve the same respect as would any of the early settler burial sites in this area that have all received protected status as heritage sites.
“Indigenous sites should receive the same designation, as they are no less important.”
Michelle Banfield, the City of Barrie’s director of development services, says in an email to BarrieToday that her department is aware of archeological concerns around the property in regards to a temporary-use bylaw to allow farming.
“The city may require archaeological assessments. However, the approval authority of these studies and any conditions related to developing a particular site are governed by the Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries,” her correspondence states. “These studies are important to recognize sites of archaeological significance, and determine if there are archaeological resources that need to be identified and evaluated. There are different stages of archaeological assessments — Stage 1, Stage 2, etc. — depending on the resources present on site.
“(Those) assessments can also identify ways to mitigate impacts on these resources by development,” Banfield adds. “Many archaeological resources are found underground and these studies are most often required on undeveloped sites. As an example, many of the development proposals in Barrie’s south end, in the Hewitt’s and Salem secondary plan areas, have submitted archaeological assessments.”
BarrieToday readers can visit proposed archaeological assessments at the city’s webpage, she adds.
The city’s approach — and perhaps those of provincial and federal levels of government — may not necessarily cut it for Monague, however.
“Sites such as this help us to gain insight into the depth of the societies and cultures that shared this land over centuries prior to European occupation,” he says. “Village sites and ossuary (burial) sites were not aimlessly chosen; they (Indigenous peoples) took into account land features — especially access to water, vegetation, animals — for ceremonial purposes or as food and medicine.
“Consultation/partnerships with the original Indigenous inhabitants would assist in finding those stories and interpreting the significance of each site for public education as part of the historical record rather than as a passing phrase in a settler-based history.”
In describing how the city, province and federal governments have recognized the significance of the site, Monague has two words.
“Not well,” he says. “But that is because, in (most) cases, they are trying to meet the needs of the developer so they ignore or look for ways to circumvent the legislation designed to protect sites.”
There is legislation, both federally and provincially, that is available to guide all parties upon initial uncovering of Indigenous villages or burial sites, he adds.
“But it tends to be ignored and is seen as a deterrent rather than a process by which they could be guided,” Monague says. “Further, most legislation calls for a consultation process with local Indigenous communities. That, too, is often ignored.
“They will tell you that they have consulted and in a lot of cases their consultation is a letter to First Nations in the area and that is not consultation. It’s stating what they are going to do; it’s not really consultation. They never really ask for permission; they just do it.”
According to the County of Simcoe website, the corporation “acknowledges that Simcoe County has been the home of many Indigenous communities and is the treaty territory of the Williams Treaties First Nations, the homeland of the Huron-Wendat Nation, the traditional territory of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (land included within, and west of the Nottawasaga River watershed), and the home of the historic Métis community in Penetanguishene and is within the traditional harvesting territory of the Georgian Bay Traditional Territory Métis.”
The archaeological sites that are the physical remains of the County of Simcoe’s 13,000-year settlement history represent a fragile and non-renewable cultural heritage resource that must be conserved and protected, the website adds.
“It’s always emotional,” Monague says of being near the archeological site south of Harvie Road. “I had the experience near this particular site because I used to live near here. I used to jog at night and ran down this road in the dark and sometimes do a small smudge ceremony for he people I knew were out here, the ancestry.”
Regardless of which level of government is involved, McGill hopes her field work of 35 years ago won’t be for naught.
“It’s very emotional,” she says, while standing near the archeological site from so long ago and agreeing with Monague’s view. “Because I know the work that was involved here to capture the history of the area and the types of artifacts we found," many of which might be seen at the Simcoe County Museum, if not for COVID-19, she adds.
“I can almost picture an Iroquois village here with the longhouses and the people. It’s a really important part of our history here that is going to be lost, unfortunately."
